Milliken family does not want to remove road memorial

Arturo Rodriguez stands next to the memorial he and his family constructed for his son, 19-year-old Ramiro Rodriguez, on Weld County Road 46 1/2 on Thursday in Milliken. Rodriguez now has been asked to remove the memorial by Weld County officials in exchange for sign reading "In memory of Ramiro Rodriguez."

Lidia Rodriguez holds a photo of her son , Ramiro Rodriguez, while visiting the memorial Thursday on Weld County Road 46 1/2 in Milliken. They constructed the memorial in honor of their Ramiro who died on this stretch in a car crash.

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The parents of 19-year-old Ramiro Rodriguez of Milliken pay a visit each day to a memorial the family built two years ago to honor the life of their son near the site of his fatal car crash in 2012.

Now the family has been told by Weld County officials they must remove the blue and white memorial that lights up on the side of Weld County Road 46 1/2.

Lidia and Arturo Rodriguez and their oldest son, Jose Rodriguez, said they where given approval by a Weld County official to erect the memorial.

“They gave us the OK to build this memorial after the first one we placed was stolen,” Jose Rodriguez said. “(The official) gave us specific measurements and rules and we have always followed them.”

But Weld County officials are now telling the family they need to remove the memorial and offered the option to replace it with an “In memory of” sign.

Weld County Public Works officials could not be reached on Thursday for comment regarding their arrangement with the Rodriguez family for the past two years.

But Weld County Commissioner Bill Garcia, the commissioner coordinator for the public works department this year, said Weld’s policy on memorials is the same as the Colorado Department of Transportation’s policy.

He said the county makes memorial signs in-house, free of charge, and displays them for three years. After that, the memorial sign is the family’s to keep.

Jose Rodriguez said a sign like that would be inadequate.

“This memorial with the cross has been built by us — it holds much more meaning than just a sign,” he said. “I can’t even tell you how many hours I have spent doing this for (Ramiro). During winter, we go and clean off the snow and we constantly maintain it and keep it clean.”

The memorial stands in a 4-by-4 foot square area and was built in about a month. The family dug out the dirt and placed a cement foundation where they put the metal cross and an arch covered in flowers, and added solar lights. The memorial is surrounded by figurines of Catholic icons and white rocks. The main colors are white and blue in honor of Ramiro’s favorite colors and football team — the Dallas Cowboys.

The family says they don’t understand why the county gave them permission to put the memorial up and now wants it taken down.

“If they would have told us no the first time, we would have listened but they gave us permission and now, we are used to having this up in memory of my brother. We are willing to modify it to fit any safety regulation but we don’t want to put it down,” Jose Rodriguez said.

Garcia said the memorial isn’t really something that is negotiable. But he said when the county found out about the memorial, they wanted to give the family some time to take it down.

“It’s something that people obviously have a lot of emotion and sentiment tied to, because of their loss,” Garcia said.

But he said it would be a tragedy if the memorial honoring the Rodriguez family’s loss was somehow the cause of another crash and loss of life.

“It’s still a public safety issue, and we really can’t make exceptions on public safety,” Garcia said.

He said the Rodriguez family was notified at the beginning of April that they had two weeks to take the memorial down. After the family sent a letter requesting a compromise, they were given more time.

Lidia Rodriguez said she doesn’t understand why the memorial is a safety issue and a distraction.

“They have told us the memorial can distract drivers and can be a safety issue as well,” she said. “But how many billboards are on the side of the road everywhere you go. Those can also be considered a distraction.”

The family said they will consider legal action if the county is not willing to compromise and allow the cross to stay up.

Although Ramiro was born in the U.S., he was buried in Chihuahua, Mexico — where his parents are from — next to the grave of his brother, who died at 3 years old in 1987, and with a cousin who died three months before Ramiro.

Lidia and Arturo Rodriguez said they see the memorial as the proper place to remember the life of their youngest son.

“We are not the only ones who visit the memorial. My son had many friends and a girlfriend who still cries for him. I don’t know exactly how many people visit daily but I know we are several,” Lidia Rodriguez said. “This means so much to all of us. It is the place where my son left this world to be in the glory with God.”